The stand taken & the statements made by Amnesty International are unfortunate, exaggerated & far from the truth.

The facts of the matter are as follows:

Amnesty International had obtained permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) only once & that too 20 years ago (19.12.2000). Since then Amnesty International, despite its repeated applications, has been denied FCRA approval by successive Govts since as per law it isn't eligible to get such approval.

However, in order to circumvent the FCRA regulations, Amnesty UK remitted large amounts of money to four entities registered in India, by classifying it as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). A significant amount of foreign money was also remitted to Amnesty (India) without MHA’s approval under FCRA. This mala fide rerouting of money was in contravention of extant legal provisions.

Owing to these illegal practices of Amnesty, the previous government had also rejected the repeated applications of Amnesty to receive funds from overseas. This had led Amnesty to suspend its India operations once during that period as well. This bipartisan & purely legal approach towards Amnesty, under different governments, makes it clear that the entire fault lies in the dubious processes adopted by Amnesty to secure funds for its operations.

All the glossy statements about humanitarian work & speaking truth to power are nothing but a ploy to divert attention from their activities which were in clear contravention of laid down Indian laws. Such statements are also an attempt to extraneously influence the course of investigations by multiple agencies into the irregularities & illegalities carried out over the last few years.

Amnesty is free to continue humanitarian work in India, as is being done by many other organizations. However, India, by settled law, doesn't allow interference in domestic political debates by entities funded by foreign donations. This law applies equally to all & it shall apply to Amnesty International as well.

India has a rich & pluralistic democratic culture with a free press, independent judiciary & tradition of vibrant domestic debate. The people of India have placed unprecedented trust in the current government. Amnesty’s failure to comply with local regulations doesn't entitle them to make comments on the democratic & plural character of India. 

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